Take A Breath
Monday, January 26, 2009
For nearly a month before the inauguration, we had to put up with much hand-wringing and face-slapping of Obama's actions before he even took office, without a single thought of his end-game. Bloggers and interest group leaders were appalled over certain cabinet choices or inaugural prayer leaders. Much was decried over people hired into his administration.
And, thanks much to Mr. Furious, I give you Obama's first week in office:
• Starting to process towards Shuttering Gitmo.
• Halting extraordinary rendition.
• Guaranteeing habeas corpus rights to detainees.
• Reviving FOIA.
• Yanked Bush's Executive Privilege. [super massive kudos to you, Mr. F, for quoting Mother Jones!]
• Reversed the international "gag rule" on funding to international women's organizations.
• Halted a buttload of Bush's Executive Orders.
• Closed since 9/11, he's re-opening the top of Statue of Liberty to the public.
Can people start to chill-out yet?
6 comments:
Can people start to chill-out yet?
While I agree that the second guessing and speculation became ridiculous, I would say that now is actually the time where we should be looking at what is happening. After months of campaign promises, rhetoric, and expert opinions, we get to see him in action.
• Starting to process towards Shuttering Gitmo.
I am was pondering a blog entry on this, so I will save my comments for that. Personally, I think both extremes are getting it somewhat wrong.
• Halting extraordinary rendition.
Fantastic. Does anyone have a link for this? This goes all the way back to Clinton and was a shitty policy. Frankly, it should have gotten scrutiny long ago, but netter late than never.
• Guaranteeing habeas corpus rights to detainees.
This was already granted in Boumediene v. Bush, but I am glad that Obama is affirming it.
• Yanked Bush's Executive Privilege. [super massive kudos to you, Mr. F, for quoting Mother Jones!]
I am very interested in seeing how this will work. From an initial glance, it looks good.
• Reversed the international "gag rule" on funding to international women's organizations.
I have no problem with giving aid to foreign countries, but with our economy in such dire straits, I'd like to see some wisdom in this area.
• Halted a buttload of Bush's Executive Orders.
Most presidents do this when they take office. I think it makes good sense. Frankly, I am not a huge fan of too many Executive Orders.
• Closed since 9/11, he's re-opening the top of Statue of Liberty to the public.
About frickin time. I never saw the sense in this.
Overall, I think he is doing fine and I don't have any major complaints at this point. The stimulus spending package worries me, but mostly because I don't think the last one was handled very well.
I would say that now is actually the time where we should be looking at what is happening
I agree completely. I, by way of Senor Furioso, was pointing out that in his first week on the job, he started doing what he said he would, despite 1,000 slaps in the face to lefty interest groups who think his cabinet and staff are not gay/black/latino/environmental/whatever enough in the 2 months before he actually became President.
We will scrutinize much here on this blog. But Jeebus, people, chill for a second. Let the man work a bit before you cry foul. Endgame. Eyes on the prize. Etc.
(yes, steve, and most other ATK-ers, I know you didn'y flip out like that. "you" in the statements above are the groups who started losing their minds in December)
...with our economy in such dire straits, I'd like to see some wisdom in this area.
Agreed... but most people probably agree that the gag rule has no relationship to wisdom.
We will scrutinize much here on this blog. But Jeebus, people, chill for a second. Let the man work a bit before you cry foul.
Good lord I agree. CNN spent an entire afternoon on whether the Obama Administration was going back on their "transparency" pledge because there was no video coverage (only photo and audio recordings) of the re-swearing ceremony.
This Obama dude's straight up gangsta. Rickey is impressed so far.
PS: and Smitty knocked Rickey for his lolbama? Heh...
Oh, not knocking Rickey. I am just tired of lolcats. Time for lolsomethingelse.
Post a Comment